Aphasia is a four-piece outfit born out of Nipples, a Taipei indie-rock band originally inspired by Sonic Youth. As Taiwan’s indie scene matured, so did the band’s sound, which gravitated towards the instrumental genre commonly called “post-rock.” In keeping with the new namesake, Aphasia’s members don’t sing — they fully embrace the language of emotional soundscapes, which they create with standard rock instrumentation: electric guitars, bass, drums, and the occasional synthesizer.
Having made its debut with the sound track to Cheng Wen-tang’s (鄭文堂) film Summer’s Tail (夏天的尾巴), Aphasia found inspiration in creating quiet, introspective moods, which led to The Crocodile Society of Aphasia, released last month on White Wabbit Records, an indie label started by the band’s bassist Yeh Wan-ching (葉宛青), better known as KK. Though the music isn’t a drastic leap from Nipples, Aphasia’s songs are more focused and refined.
Each song plays like a self-contained story, though all manage to stick to a main theme. The liner notes offer the band’s only verbal message, a slogan printed in Chinese that reads: “Not having [speaking] a language doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion” (沒有語言，不代沒有意見).
The overall sound is ambient and detached, and relies heavily on electric guitars to direct the melancholy undertones that often grow into loud, mid-tempo rock laced with controlled screeching and howling. Behind the River begins with a gloomy melody line that builds into layers of guitar strumming and cymbal crashes. The reverb tones of Deep Spring and Rainy Season create a dreamy mood that hints at the compositions of jazz guitarist Bill Frisell; rocking tracks like Metal Tank and The Freedom Highway are drenched with overdrive distortion. Overall, the songs hold up well after repeated listening, but sometimes predictability creeps in, and makes later tracks like Graduate Travel seem labored and melodramatic.
Post-rock’s avant-garde pretensions may turn off some listeners, but Aphasia’s music shows thought-out craftsmanship and a sense of direction. The grooves draw you in slowly, while textured guitar sounds develop meaningfully and usually lead to satisfying hooks or resolutions.
— David Chen
Backquarter (四分衛) is all over the map stylistically, and this is part of the band’s charm. The group’s new album World is unabashed rock ’n’ roll fun that will please die-hard fans for its upbeat carnival of rock sounds, while unfamiliar listeners will have to keep up with the whims of these veteran rockers, who at one point flirted with mainstream label success but realized they were happier making music the way they wanted.
The album kicks off with Sandwich Love, a feel-good rocker with peppy horn arrangements and chorus hooks that hint at Japanese pop. There is also a Japanese rock feel to Panda Club, a hard-rock song full of bravado guitar riffs and rousing refrains. Amber has a funkier groove, with vocals drenched in a spacey reverb that nods to the 1980s and a quirky piano solo that comes out of nowhere.
The band uses a horn section to good effect on I Want a Huge Table, which lends a classic R ’n’ B touch to a modern rock groove. Audrey Hepburn, the band’s ode to the iconic actress, sports a catchy electronica-sounding bass line but overreaches a bit. The mood of longing throughout the tune doesn’t quite fit with lead singer Spark Chen’s (陳如山) lustful delivery of the final refrain: “Lady, lady, take me to your moon river.”
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